Split Push Guide: Strategy, Champions and Definition

In this guide we will consider in details split push strategy in League of Legends. What is split pushing in LoL and how you can use this strategy effectively during your games in solo queue? When you have to use Split Push strategy and when it’s better for your team to group up? What champions are good split pushers? We will answer on all these questions in our split push guide.

SPLIT PUSH STRATEGY IN LOL: MEANING / DEFINITION

Split push strategy in LoL means split up of team to start pushing several lanes at the same moment. Main idea of split push strategy is that you send to separate lane someone who has strong pushing abilities and who is capable to win anyone in the enemy team during a duel, while rest of the team keep enemy team busy avoiding a real team fight. Because of that often enemy team has to send more than one person to defend against split pusher. In that moment main group of your team turns out to be in majority and can engage a team fight. The more synchronization team and split pusher have the more effective split push strategy will be. Split push strategy gives main part of your team a chance to fight in majority or get objectives during siege. Thus they can engage a team fight against a group of remaining opponents or attempt to take objectives. However, split push strategy can be more advanced when your team is divided into 3 groups: 1-3-1, 1-1-3, 2-1-2 etc. In this case, the main focus should be on objectives or enganging local fights while enemies are separated and can make mistakes.

The main advantage of split pushing strategy is that it’s easy to apply in practice while it creates a hard puzzle for your enemies. If opposite team doesn’t react properly split push can lead to catastrophic consequences for them. Often it will create two fights on different parts of the map: 4 versus 4 (sometimes this part of team would have to defend 4v5 under turret) and 1 versus 1. And even if you lose the 4v4 fight but your split pusher will win his, very likely that he will have time to take a turret while rest of his team is fighting. That’s why it’s better when champion you send to split push has great capabilities for a duel.

SUCCESSFUL SPLIT PUSH: BASIC REQUIREMENTS

TEAM SYNCHRONIZATION DURING SPLIT PUSH

As mentioned before you need to have a proper team play to make split push strategy work. If one person is doing his job while rest of the team senselessly roaming over the map then you can’t expect any good outcome. Each person of the team should make pressure in the same moment to succeed (except situation when opponents are sieging while someone in your team is split pushing. In this case, you have to hold under turret while your team in the minority).

PROPER WARD PLACING TO MAKE SPLIT PUSH STRATEGY WORK

You need to control enemy team movements to avoid back strikes when your team is divided. Warding jungle along the lane being pushed is important to make you aware if hunt on split pusher has began. Also you have to ward rest of the map to avoid hard engage on the main group of your team. Don’t leave this responsibility to the support only.

TELEPORT ON TOP LANER AND MID LANER

If your top laner or midlaner (or even both) has Teleport instead of other summoner spells it will significantly increase split pushing capabilities of your team. This makes a puzzle for the enemy team even more harder to solve. In moment they sending someone to hunt, your teamates or you can use teleport to rejoin your team and engage 5 versus 4 fight or start doing dragon/baron. Also such ability is open for high mobility champions like Master Yi who can join team fight in time on their own. However, if you are not planing to split push during the game, we would recommend you to take Ignite or other summoner spell on mid lane, despite the current meta teleport very rare pays off in solo queue, especially on low elo tiers.

THERE IS AT LEAST ONE CHAMPION IN YOUR TEAM WITH GOOD CREEP SLAIN/SIEGE ABILITIES

If your team have a champion who can easily clear minion waves (e.g.Anivia, Ziggs) then siege process for the enemy team will be really difficult if not almost impossible. In this case, opposite team very likely would hunt on the person who actually split pushing and this gives space to act to rest of your team. The same rule works when you sieging, constantly poking and cleaning minion waves makes siege process much easier.

SPLIT PUSH CHAMPIONS IN LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

There are three main requirements to be suitable for split push and a champion should have at least two of them:

Champion should be great in one versus one fights.

Champion should have strong pushing potential.

Champion should be able to escape when hunt on him begins.

Some of champions has no inborn pushing potential but they get it with different items likeRavenous Hydra orSunfire Cape.

Now let’s examine most effective split push champions separately.

SPLIT PUSH WITH GAREN – SPIN TO WIN

Garen has great capabilities to split push and that champion best shines on the lane and in one versus one fights. This champion has many pros for split pushing:

Garen has great basic tanky stats

His E cleans minions in a few seconds

Q provides decent escape ability and additional damage on turrets

Passive ability allows to return to the lane over and over even if you get damaged during split push attempt

Decent duel potential against squishy targets due to his ultimate

Garen is a good champion for beginners and is a good pick if you aim for lane dominating.

GNAR – EXTREMELY ANNOYING SPLIT PUSHER

Gnar is extremely annoying champion who is hard to catch, deals great damage and showing himself decently during duels. He was one of the most popular picks on the worlds championship in 2017. He is good choice for split push because:

He has ranged attack which allows to attack any turrets by possibility

In mini form his Q is good for both: cleaning minions and poke your enemies under turret

His E provides escape abilities in both forms

He is becoming very tanky in Mega form thus really hard to kill, with all his crowd control and leap

SPLIT PUSH RACE WITH MUNDO

Mundo is aggromachine which can take a lot of enemy attention on himself and still survive.

Phenomenal survival abilities due to regeneration from passive and ultimate which provides huge self-heal and movespeed

Decent basic damage to turrets with his E

Cleans minions with his W pretty fast

Q is nice ability to slow down people who chase you

ONE VERSUS MANY WITH ILLAOI

Illaoi is one the best champions to fight many enemies at once.

Great lane phase potential which allows to dominate almost every enemy on the lane

Ability to fight multiple enemies at once and win, due to ultimate which scaling with amount of enemies nearby

Absolutely easy lane pushing with tentacles

Harassing enemies under turret with her E

However, she is not good at dealing damage to turrets but it can be compensated with Demolition rune.

JAX – SNOWBALLING CHAMPION

Jax outscales most champions in League of Legends and thus his is good pick for split pushing strategy.

He can duel almost any champion since middle game

Hard outscaling

He doesn’t have AoE abilities but when he gets 2 items minions are dying pretty fast

He meltes turrets and inhibitors apart

SOLELY WIN GAME WITH NASUS

Nasus is well known split push champion. There are many reasons for it:

He strongly scales with time due to stacks on his Q

In the late game he kills turrets with 3 Q’s

He doesn’t need to win his lane due to scaling mechanic, he needs to get 2 items to be significant and becomes more and more real threat with each new item

He can win in duel with the most champions in the late game

He has great sustain due to his passive ability

He is hard to kill and hard to chase due to his W

DRAGON SPLIT PUSH WITH SHYVANA

A great jungler and sometimes top lane pick, Shyvana is great at split pushing.

She cleans minions pretty fast

She is very tanky and mobile

Her ultimate provides escape capabilities

He takes turrets at decent rate

PUSH AND ASSASSINATE WITH ZED

Zed is the perfect duelist champion and one of the most popular bans in the LoL solo queue. But that’s not only advantage why he is good split pusher:

He can easily dive under the turret using ultimate, making his casts and then safely teleport back

OTHER CHAMPIONS FOR SPLIT PUSH STRATEGY

There are many champions who can be used during split push strategy, let’s list and describe them in a few words.

FIORA is good for split push when she got fed thus can win in one versus two fight. She has no escapes and it’s better to have Ravenous Hydra if you want to pushing a lane at the decent rate.

GANGPLANK. One of the most valuable advantages of Gangplank is that he can assist his team with Cannon Barrage while he can be on other side of the map. Speed boost and inbound QSS – Remove Scurvy allows him to run away safely in most of situations.

IRELIA is very strong duelist with decent survivability, these 2 factors allow her to make dives on her enemies. Her pushing potential is very average since she has to use Transcendent Blades or has to spam Bladesurge in order to push her lane fast. Irelia has no straight escape abilities, but she can stun enemies with Equilibrium Strike, castBladesurge on enemy minion and get heal fromTranscendent Blades.

JARVAN IV is all-purpose champion. He has enough AoE to farm minion waves quickly, Demacian Standart and Dragon strike combo helps to get out of hard situations while attack speed buff from Demacian Standart is good assistance for turret destruction

KAYLE can make her lane constantly being pushed using her Righteous Fury and she has decent duel capabilities. Since attack speed build is default for her, turrets falling down quickly from her attacks. Diving blessing and Intervention are helpful for both dive or escape.

MASTER YI do split push since 2010 year. High DPS and lighting mobility are the key to success, but even for him proper map control is needed. Can duel anyone, can escape from anyone. However, he highly rellies on items.

PANTHEON. His ultimateGrand Skyfall is a great way to reunite with your team in the moment of team fight. Also it can be used as escape of imminent punish from the enemy team. The ultimate is the most reason why Pantheon is in this list.Heartseeker Strike deals two times less damage to minions than to champions thus push potential of Pantheon is low and demands mana. However, he is strong duelist and can dive his opponents thus we even included him in the elo boosting champions list(would be open in a new tab).

RENEKTON is one of the strongest champions at the early phase of the game. Great base damage and sustain allows him to get advantage against most opponents on the top lane. Due to huge AoE damage from his abilities, Dominus ultimate and Sunfire Cape Renekton able to secure a victory in the one versus two fight.However, if he builds tanky he may not have enough damage to dive.Renekton is the faceroll machine, but don’t forget that he is not immortal.

RIVEN mechanics allows her to do much including a win in the minority. She has 4 dashes and shield which are big help during escapes or dives. Another advantage is a great AoE damage which helps to slain minions fast and to fight several champions at once.

SHACO can compete with Tryndamerefor the best split push champion title but he needs Ravenous Hydra first.Deceiveis a great gap closer that can be used as disengage tool along with Jack in the Box.With clone fromHallucinateShaco demolish turrets within seconds.

SHEN. When Shen gets his Sunfire Cape he is ready to start split pushing. His ultimate Stand United allows him to rejoin team any time and until that he can constantly keep pressure on the lane with great sustain provided by his abilities.

SINGED is the worst champion in League of Legends to be chased. He can be seem weak at early game, but you can compensate that with proxy farm of first two minion waves.

SIVIR is ,probably, the only attack damage carry who can be used as split pusher. Boomerang Blade and Ricochet slain minion packs in seconds whileOn The Hunt can be used as strong escape ability. As most attack damage carries Sivir melts turrets quickly.

TEEMO is annoying and everyone knows that. He can protect entrances to his lane with Noxious Traps what makes his lane almost isolated and allows him to pressure his opponent constantly without any punish. However to push lane at the fast rate he has to spend charges of his Noxious Traps for minion waves.

TRYNDAMERE is maybe the best choice among other champions in this list. Tryndamere is a perfect duelist, he cleans minion waves and destroys turrets swiftly, Spinning Slash is a great escape and Undying Rage allows to dive safely.

TWISTED FATE. When Twisted Fate gets decent amount of Ability Power, big packs of minions starting to fall down in two casts. With Lich Bane as default choice for him, Twisted Fate destroys turrets pretty fast. But he may need a proper warding to cast Destiny in time to get a successful escape.

UDYR. If properly played Udyr becomes almost elusive. Phoenix Stance for minion slain, Tiger Stance for turrets and Bear Stance for situation when you feel that hunt for you have began. Pretty simple and effective.

There are not every possible split push champions in the list, but we tried to consider most of them.

WHEN YOU SHOULDN’T SPLIT PUSH

Split push is not always an option. Thus you have to know when it’s better to stick with your team and avoid solo movements:

Enemy team has better starting point thus they can reach objectives much faster than you.

Your team is stronger and very likely will win next team fight. Split push is good when your team is weaker or you can take some objectives for free if you use this strategy. Don’t give your enemies time to get on their feet by team fight avoidance. Sadly, this often happens in solo queue and leads to loses. Don’t be scripted!

Your champion brings more benefits to a team fight than a champion enemies send to defend against you. This rule is only true if you can’t kill your enemy under turret.

Split push is a strong tool when used properly and you should know when it is time to use that tool. Use this pushing strategy only if the situation is suitable.

“Hey, I play this one champion, and I can split push with her. Logically, she is the best split pusher in the game, hands down. I know this because even though I did not play many other champions, I saw a few champions before. Your guide is wrong, my champion is the best, and needs a higher rating.”

Gnar is the best split pusher in the game BOTRK and BC and the rest tank you will be at a tower ever 30 second and have one down in less then 10 end game. When the other team comes if you have good vision you can easily bounce over minions or wall and out run them.

Why isn’t Quinn on this list, she has a decent wave clear, a blind and a slow, insane mobility with her ult, her e can be used for escape if used correctly and has great dueling abilities. Because of her low attack range, she isn’t much useful in teamfight, so it’s really a better to send her split pushing. Also, Riot described Quinn as an “ad carry with high mobility and great split pushing potential”.

I think you forgot to mention one thing. What if youre pushed to the enemy tower, but say i’m a shyvana and they send a tryndamere. I can fight him no problem, but im already pushed to their tower and there’s no way im gonna kill a tryndamere under tower without dying. He just has too much damage and his e + ult make him pretty much unkillable under tower. What do I do now? I have the weaker team ofcourse, so what am I supposed to do? Go back to my team or just try to get as many hits in the turret as possible? The last suggestion is really hard because as shyvana I usually get either cinderhulk or sunfire cape, which auto aggros the turret.

It’s better to back to your team and try to make a team fight in the majority / take an objective or farm enemy jungle because unlikely that you will be able to slain enemy champion in such situation or take a turret while he is defending it.

I think Zed is the best split pusher:
1. Perfect duelist – can kill in 1v1 almost everyone.
2. Cleaning minion waves very fast and can use his abilities non-stop because has energy instead of mana.
3. Mobile, because of his shadow can teleport through obstacles, escaping this way from chasing foes.
4. Has huge AD thus can melt turrets and inhibitors very fast.

Yeah, the split push strategy is the best strategy! I really love to watch how my un-clever enemies just can not split up and running from lane to lane, trying to defence their base :D
And the Gnar is my personal favorite. Oh it is so funny to push, and if some champion try to confront you, you’ll just beat all the shit out of him.
And i really love Fiora, Jax, Trundle, Kayle, Zed for their opportunity to kick assess of those who wants to stop you. They great at pushing and even greater in the 1v1 duels!

Split pushing is such a gay way to win. Nah, I understand that some champions are just created to use this strategy, but gawd, why developers just can not create a gaming situation, when you can push lines only if you win a team fight? I really love how teamfights are executed in LoL, and i hate when such great mechanic just abondened because split push can bring much more profits! >:c